Appendix A

Mr. Bill Graham, M.P.
Chair, Standing Committee on Foreign
Affairs and International Trade
House of Commons
Ottawa, Canada K1A 0A6

Dear Mr. Graham:

Thank you for your letter and invitation to comment on the question of Canada's Nuclear Non-proliferation, Arms control and Disarmament policy. I regret not being able to speak personally to the Committee and value the opportunity to make the following observations.

First, I salute you for your initiative. This is in my view the dominant security issue of the post-Cold War era. It will shape the foundation of international conflict resolution for decades to come. More importantly, it will govern the pace and the prospect for nudging higher the norms of civilized behaviour among nations and peoples.

Second, I would like for your group to understand that my recent public statements calling for a renewed commitment by the nuclear weapons states to their obligation to eliminate their nuclear weapon arsenals was not the consequence of some sudden blinding insight. My doubts, concerns and dismay regarding the policies and practices governing the role of nuclear weapons grew over many years. They are the products of an insider's view, someone who had unique exposure and responsibilities in matters ranging from the conceptual to the operational. What I came to understand was that we, in the United States, had created a universe of organizations, networks and processes so complex that over time we simply lost the capacity to govern its activities. The price was enormous, in resources, in risk and in lost opportunity to recast US-Soviet relations. Fortunately, some combination of skill, luck and divine intervention allowed us to escape our half-century of confrontation without a nuclear holocaust.

Third, it is truly a sad commentary on the human condition that we are incapable of letting go the most bizarre and terrifying security construct ever conceived by the mind of man. I am sure you have heard from the current practitioners of nuclear deterrence during your work. I know them all, and have had extended discussions with most of them on the role of nuclear weapons in national security, whether in the US or elsewhere around the globe. Their arguments are painfully familiar; I know them by heart. They are serious and well reasoned. They are also egregiously wrong-headed, not just in terms of a profoundly altered security environment but also in terms of the underlying moral questions.

Indeed, the most difficult truth I had to confront in my own reassessment of nuclear weapons was that for most of my career I had failed to grasp the moral context of these hideously destructive devices. It came crashing home the day I assumed responsibility for the US nuclear war plan and confronted the consequences of targeting over 10,000 weapons on the Soviet Union. That is when I came to fully appreciate the brutal honesty of Joseph Stalin's comment on the modern age: "The death of a single individual is a tragedy; the death of millions is a statistic."

As you examine the vital question of how Canada, this extraordinary nation of diverse peoples and great friend of the United States, should align itself on the continuing role of nuclear weapons I encourage you ponder deeply the opportunity and the stakes at hand. My country is badly in need of a new moral compass on this issue. We have committed the fatal sin in public policy making of becoming cynical and arrogant with respect to decisions affecting the lives of hundreds of millions of people. We have trivialized the likelihood that deterrence might fail, thus providing easy moral cover for ignoring the consequences. We have learned to live with a weapon that numbs our conscience and diminishes our humanity. We need to hear voices of reason, urging us to a higher standard of rectitude and global leadership. We await your call.

With every best wish, I am

Sincerely yours,

Lee Butler
General, USAF, Ret.

(July 1998)